Report: FCC official doubts AT&T + T-Mobile deal will sail through

An unnamed FCC official told the Wall Street Journal this week that "there's no way the chairman's office rubber-stamps" the recently announced merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA. The official didn't go into further details, but said that the organization hadn't even begun preliminary research into the merger, and that even if the deal does eventually go through, "It will be a steep climb to say the least."

So, not exactly a vote of confidence from the FCC so far. Still, that's far from an official statement, and certainly both AT&T and T-Mobile are going to do everything possible to try and get this deal through. As we posted before, Sprint is the most likely opponent to the deal, and has asked federal regulators to take a close look at the potential effects. The earliest reports we got said that the transaction was planned to take about a year, so the FCC will likely have a decision within that time frame.